New MEM Concentration in Business & Environment Has Triple-Bottom-Line Focus

The Nicholas School has developed a new Master of Environmental Management concentration in Business & Environment (BE) to meet the growing private-sector demand for managers, consultants and analysts who can develop and implement business practices that benefit the environment, society and shareholder value alike.

IN ADDITION TO GALLAGHER, CORE FACULTY TEACHING AND ADVISING STUDENTS IN THE NEW CONCENTRATION WILL BE:

JOHN VIRDINdirector of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Program at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions

Students entering this fall can choose the new concentration, one of eight offered for the residential MEM program.

“Businesses today are increasingly seeking graduates who can serve as leaders in addressing critical environmental issues such as climate change, water resource management and renewable energy and in constructing environmentally sustainable supply chains,” says Deborah Gallagher, associate professor of the practice of resource and environmental policy, who chairs the BE program. The new program is designed to train environmental leaders who have the knowledge, the analytical tools and the
soft skills to evaluate the environmental and economic trade-offs of business practices and technologies to help firms identify the best path forward, she says.

The new concentration incorporates systems thinking and strategic analysis into a curriculum focused on business structures and trends that impact resource use and ecosystems, supply chains and drivers, and policies of business sustainability.

Students will put their knowledge and skills to work through client-based sustainable business consulting projects for industry sponsors.

The goal is for students to learn firsthand how businesses are connected to each other and to consumers through supply chains, and how business behaviors have an impact on the environment, she says. They’ll also learn about methods of influence through in-depth examination of motivations for implementing environmental stewardship practices and mechanisms for communicating these practices within organizations and to external stakeholders.

The curriculum will include intensive training in methods and tools for financial analysis, life-cycle analysis, supply chain management, and other critical means for quantifying the economic, social and environmental implications of implementing new practices and strategies.

BE graduates will be equipped to provide leadership in a wide range of fields and at all levels of business structures. These range from executive-level posts and traditional environmental and sustainability management positions, to being part of project teams that address supply chain, responsible sourcing, logistics, sales and marketing, product design, corporate strategy, government affairs, and community engagement,